


Perspective

by keelywolfe



Series: by any other name [67]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Issues with LV, M/M, Prejudice Against Monsters (Undertale), Prejudice by Police Officers, Spicyhoney - Freeform, Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underfell Sans (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Violence, papcest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 18:49:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18946765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keelywolfe/pseuds/keelywolfe
Summary: Set during the events of 'Any Other Tuesday', from another POV.





	Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> If y'all read 'Any Other Tuesday', you know this is going to be less sweet and fluffy and more plot-forwarding. As per the tags, there's some violence and some LV-issues. 
> 
> Here we go...

* * *

It was his fault, Edge knew.

For being too trusting, for letting his guard down. He saw the Humans from the beginning, standing together on the sidewalk, but didn’t register the threat, caught up as he was in the evening. In his joy at spending time with people he cared about, and his frustration at their issues. 

His magic was bursting full from consuming so much food, even if it wasn’t his own cooking, leaving him content and a little sleepy. His mind was stuck on Stretch’s exasperating insistence on smoking even after Edge asked him to cut back, concerned as he was about his husband’s recent lethargy. In Jeff’s poorly hidden upset that had nothing to do with what had happened with the action figures; something was bothering him past a little minor ineptitude and that was a puzzle that Edge couldn’t help picking at, trying to solve it with the sparse clues provided.

Allowing Jeff to drive his car was an unsubtle attempt to cheer him, even if it made Edge twitch to think of riding with someone else behind the wheel. Watching him dart away with keys in hand left Edge too busy patting himself on the back to think anything of the Humans standing nearby. 

His instincts were failing him; too much time on the surface, too many hours sitting in an office and not training, and for the first brief, frozen moment, Edge didn’t even realize what had happened. Neither did anyone else, but none of the others were from Underfell and he should have known, should have fucking known before there was ever a knife pulled, much less used. It was what he was _made_ for. 

He should have known, but Stretch was always better at sensing Intent. Like Red, like Sans, some unconscious instinct that allowed them to dodge a blow before it had even fallen. In the same instant the sight of blood registered alongside Jeff’s shocked cry, Stretch was already shortcutting away before Edge could grab him. 

Edge cursed viciously, dropping the bags and running towards them, leaving Antwan standing alone in his shock. Flashes of magic were already filling the night like miniature bolts of lighting, fierce orange and blue. 

He’d never seen Stretch form an actual attack before, never, that wasn’t his duty, Edge was the protector, he shouldn’t _have_ to-

All three of the Humans were writhing on the ground by the time Edge got there, screaming as if their very skin burned. Karmic retribution, he realized. Which could only mean all these men had LV; none of them were innocents. 

Stretch was standing over them, breathing heavily and a single eye light was strobing the way Red’s did whenever he cast aside his lazy veneer, and the smile he wore in Underfell in those times was often the last thing a Monster saw before their lives ended in a scattering of dust. 

Edge shook away brutal memory and stepped up, the way he should have in the beginning, the way he’d been trained. Stretch might have gotten off the first attack, but Edge didn't give him a chance for a second. With a vicious sweep of his hand, he turned their souls blue, pinning them to the ground even as the countdown on their HP slowed and faded.

The crimson spattering one of the Humans was vivid in the light from the streetlamp, as deep a bitter red as Edge’s magic, and in his chest, his soul burned with volcanic heat, the LV within it grasping greedily at his anger. Blood, Human blood, Jeff's blood. Jeff, one of his, how _dare_ they, to touch one under his protection, his--

Edge curled his fingers, pressing down harder on their souls and the screams choked off, garbled into silence. 

And oh, the temptation was there, to watch them as they strangled for breath, to see the life snuff out in their eyes, watch the knowledge of their death filling them with terror the same way fresh LV filled his soul like bitter magma. 

"edge, let them breathe. if you kill them, the paperwork will never end." 

It was like being doused in ice water. Stretch’s voice breaking through the furious clench his LV had on his soul, shaking him to his core. Edge swallowed hard and lightened his hold, until he could hear them all gasping for breath again, though he kept them pinned hard enough to make it a struggle, to keep them from talking. 

Behind him, Edge could hear Stretch talking to Jeff and Antwan, calm and soothing. Completely in control despite the horror of the situation and he didn’t have to guess that Stretch was going to heal Jeff despite the problems it would cause, trying to explain all that blood without a wound. 

Even as he thought that, it never occurred to him to tell Stretch not to do it, no, not at all, ready to accept the consequences. Instead, he heard Stretch explaining that he would help some, and Edge understood immediately. Enough healing to take Jeff out of danger but leaving some of the wound to explain the blood. 

It was brilliant, really, a way to help Jeff without endangering all Monsters and the sudden surge of love Edge felt for him dampened the last sparks of his LV, handing back his control. Edge took hold of it gratefully, as easily as slipping on a familiar glove. 

But that didn’t mean these Humans knew that.

Edge crouched down next to the Humans, loomed in close and allowed his eye lights to flare demonically, glaring down at them as he parted his teeth in a vicious smirk. He could smell urine suddenly, strong and foul, and realized at least one of the men was afraid enough to piss his pants. 

Good. 

The sound of sirens was growing louder, other Humans were milling around the parking lot, watching but keeping warily back. Edge couldn’t spare a thought to public relations, had no idea what these Humans thought of what they were seeing. All he could do was stay here and defend the ones he cared about. He protected what was his and no one was taking it from him. 

No one.

* * *

It all seemed to happen so quickly. The police and the ambulance arrived almost simultaneously, pulling into the parking lot with sirens wailing and soon the sidewalk was crowded with Humans in various uniforms.

The EMT’s worked with brisk efficiency, sliding a backboard beneath Jeff and lifting him onto a gurney. Antwan stayed close, reaching out to him, trying to keep hold of his hand though it was obvious Jeff was unconscious. They loaded him into the ambulance quickly, Antwan climbing in after them, and in a scream of sirens, they were gone the same way they’d come. 

The assailants were taken just as quickly from Edge’s hold, handcuffed and sat in police cars, and as soon as he was able to loose his magic, Edge turned away, searching for his husband. 

As tall as he was, it didn’t take long, towering several inches taller than any of the Humans. 

Stretch was standing alone, staring after the ambulance, his eye lights dim pinpricks, a clear sign of how much magic he’d just poured into healing Jeff’s wounds. He was only wearing a tank top overtop his track pants; at some point he’d stripped off his hoodie and used it to pillow Jeff’s head against the hard ground. It was crumpled on the ground by his feet, filthy and speckled with blood, more dark stains on the sidewalk, and his veneer of calm was visibly cracking, a tremor running through him, another.

Edge quickly stripped off his own jacket, draping it over Stretch’s shoulders, and sliding an arm around him to pull him close. The tremors evolved into shaking, a single tear tracking down Stretch’s cheek bone. He was twisting his hands together, seeming unaware he was even doing it. They were filthy with blood and Edge took them in his own anyway, holding them gently as he leaned in to murmur, “Are you all right?”

Before Stretch could answer, a voice interrupted them. “So, which one of you attacked the humans?”

Edge turned towards that voice to see a uniformed police officer standing only a few feet away. The way she phrased it combined with her cold expression made Edge stiffen. Slowly, he let Stretch go, taking a careful step forward and shifting until Stretch was behind him. “Those Humans attacked our friend. Our Human friend. Perhaps you saw the ambulance taking him away?”

Her smile was tight and unpleasant, and it didn’t escape Edge’s notice that her hand was loose at her side, close to her weapons. “Well, you fellas did something, though, right? Those guys are telling us a different story, so maybe you’d like to clear up some questions for us.”

The other officers were coming closer, forming a loose circle around them and Edge moved slowly, deliberately, only turning his head to mark their positions and estimate escape routes. He caught a glimpse of Stretch behind him as he did and his eye lights were tinging orange, a sign that he was tracking all of them, registering their Intent. For all that Stretch was fond of Humans, the Ebott police certainly weren’t dear to him and Edge realized with a chill that there were no other Monsters around. They were in Ebott, alone, and the only others who knew they were here were current en route to the hospital. 

Not far away were dozens of other Humans, cell phones out recording, and Edge raised his voice to be heard even at that distance, “I believe we are finished talking until another representative of the Embassy arrives.”

“We think it would be better if you came downtown to talk.” Her tone brooked no argument, offered no compromise. 

“Are we under arrest?” Edge asked, struggling for calm. His LV, already roused once this night, was churning, agitated as the officer took a step closer to them.

She frowned, and there was a certain recognizable coldness to her, a mark of her own LV. “No, not yet. All we know for sure is one of you used magic on those boys. That’s illegal, isn’t it?”

“Not in cases of self-defense, as my lawyer will be happy to inform you,” Edge said, coolly. “My husband is standing with his best friend’s blood on his shirt and you’re telling me you don’t think it was necessary?”

“Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be,” she said, aggravatingly placating. “We have the right to take you downtown—"

Stretch spoke up behind him, sharply, “i think our diplomatic immunity says you’re wrong. and you might not want to get too close, chuckles, you’ll have a bad time.”

Another officer, one who was stepping closer on the left, paused, “Is that a threat?”

“nope, that’s a fact for all the cell phones recording over there. here’s another one, i have low hp, so i don’t get to play rough.” Stretch let out a humorless laugh, crowding in close behind Edge, but not so much to interfere with his angle of attack. “i played it your way the last time, went downtown and everything, and y’all played the dumb card and pretended not to know what to do. this time you should all know. so, either call the embassy for a rep or let us go.”

The one he’d called chuckles took a step closer. “All we want are details about what happened.” 

“yeah, i bet you do and now you’ll be getting ‘em from the news. see ya.”

Before Edge could say another word, the world dissolved around him. He only had time to catch the sudden shock and anger on the officer’s face, bitterly satisfying, before the nausea hit him. 

Wherever they were, there was a toilet directly in front of him and Edge made use of it, vomiting a glut of magic into the clean, white porcelain bowl. And again, his roused LV made it worse than normal and it took long moments for him to gag it back, slumping back shakily to sit on the tile floor.

Stretch was already sitting against the door, his elbows resting on his updrawn knees and his eye lights politely averted. “sorry, babe. figured things weren’t going in our favor and it was time to make like a tree and get the fuck out of there.” He smiled faintly, “you always do tell me to cheese it if i need to, but i wasn’t about to leave you to chase after the thin blue line.” 

“I would agree,” Edge rasped out. He swallowed hard, grimacing at the foul taste in his mouth. “Where are we?”

Stretch’s smile melted into a full-fledged grin and it was strong enough that Edge felt a pang of relief. “we’re in the bathroom of ‘classic books’. it was the only place close by that i’ve been and you're lucky i spilled coffee on my shirt once when i was here or we would be mopping thomas’s floor for him.” 

“I’m happy to count all the luck I can.” The nausea was lingering, but Edge moved anyway, shifting to carefully pull Stretch into his arms. “Are you all right?”

His nod was a little jerky, tending towards making his words a lie as he said, “yeah. yeah, i’m okay.” Stretch let out another shaky laugh. “been a long time since i made an attack, suppose i was lucky it didn’t fizzle like a bad firecracker. didn’t do too bad, yeah?”

“Yes,” Edge said firmly. His own failures were something he could deal with later. Right now, the only thing he was worried about was Stretch’s state of mind. It _had_ been a very long time since Stretch had formed an attack and while Edge only knew what happened in Underswap the generalist of terms, it was something that Stretch still struggled with, still had nightmares about. This was bound to dredge up some awful memories and all he could hope to do was mitigate it. “You protected your friend and Jeff is going to be all right because of you.”

“yeah.” To his dismay, Stretch pulled away, rolling to his feet and going to the sink. He pushed up the sleeves on Edge’s jacket and washed his hands vigorously, the water slowly going from rusty to clear while Edge could only watch in concern. 

Whatever façade of composure Stretch was attempting was cracking, fissures were opening; this was his fault, Stretch should never have had to do that, never needed to even get close to those Humans, Jeff should never have been hurt—

“Love?” Edge said, softly, even as he clamped down hard on his own thrumming guilt.

“i’m not okay,” Stretch said abruptly. He turned off the water and leaned against the sink, his head down. “fuck, my timing is shitty, i know, but, i can’t do this anymore, i—” he swallowed hard, didn’t look at Edge, the glint of his eye lights reflecting in the porcelain. “i’ve been lying to you. maybe not lying, but not telling you the truth, i’m sorry, babe.”

Edge only sat there, dumbfounded with confusion as he said slowly, “All right.”

“i’m having a problem with my hp,” Stretch told him, his voice ragged as he confessed. “i’ve been using healing magic infused oil to keep it up. sans and red have been making it and giving it to me on the sly. i didn’t see alphys today to help with an experiment, i went so she could run some tests. she’s not done, but at the moment, it looks like it’s permanently dropped to four.”

The anger came then, a brief, jaggedly sharp surge of it jamming into the churning LV in his soul and for a moment, Edge was furious with all of them, those systematically keeping this a secret from him; his brother, Sans, his husband who was cringing into the sink, his shoulders hunched as he waited for Edge’s judgement.

Then he slowly exhaled, letting it go as he reached out and carefully pulled Stretch back into his arms. He nearly collapsed into them, clutching hard, and Edge could feel the warmth of tears seeping through his shirt as he settled Stretch against his chest.

“That must have been very frightening for you,” Edge told him quietly, whispering the words against his skull as he held his love close.

“maybe it was. you’re not mad?” The smallness of his voice made Edge’s soul clench, remembering another time, in the hospital. He hadn’t been wrong, his anger justified, but obviously the effect of it was lingering in ways he hadn’t anticipated.

Better to sidestep that question, “Rus, I’m concerned. Not only that you’re dealing with this but that you’re dealing with it alone, Red and Sans, aside.” He pushed Stretch back enough to look into his eye lights, cupping his chin gently in a gloved hand. “I know you don’t want to worry me, but you’re making me break my own promises. That I would love and cherish you through sickness and health. Let me be there for you. Please, love. It hurts me to think of you doing this alone.”

Stretch blinked hard, uselessly, tears gathering in his sockets again as he ducked his head back down, burying his face into Edge’s shoulder and his voice was muffled into the fabric as he whispered, “i don’t deserve you.”

“That’s a point we can argue but the fact is you have me. So let me help.” Sitting together on a tiled bathroom floor, Edge held him, hugging him tight and murmuring his love as he wished, not for the first time, that he could share his HP with him. Make him well, take away all the worries and pain Stretch went through. Keep him safe. 

“will you come with me when i go back to see her?” Stretch asked, heartbreakingly timid, and Edge might not be able to heal him, but he could pull him in closer, press soft kisses on his skull.

“Of course,” Edge murmured. “Of course. But first, I think we need to find a way to get home.”

Stretch let out a watery chuckle. “even if you want another chance to puke up your shoes, i’ll need a few minutes to recharge yet.”

“Little good that going back outside would do us. Even if you could get us to my car, I don’t have my keys,” Edge sighed. “And the police likely won’t be leaving any time soon, not after that exit. I hope the Humans who were recording got good audio.”

“if they didn’t, i did,” Stretch leaned back and his smile was damp, but sly. “sans upgraded my phone recently because i wanted to get better video to upload for my twitter. for the ladies, you know. i started recording the second the cops got there.”

“You’re a genius,” Edge told him sincerely, and his grin widened, bright as the sun. 

“you already knew that.”

His phone chimed, startling them, and Edge looked at it with a frown to see a text from an unknown number.

_you and your liability get your tailbones out front_

Ah. Not that unknown, then.

“Love, do you think you can get us as far as the sidewalk by the front door?”

* * *

Edge only caught a glimpse of the car before he was forced to duck down, vomiting in the gutter even as he staggered towards the open door. Stretch was already inside it, crammed into the Volkswagen’s backseat and Edge swallowed back his nausea as well as he could to join him.

In the driver’s seat, Red didn’t even remove the cigar from his mouth as he drawled, “geez, boss, if you’d have waited a second i would’ve told you i bypassed the alarm. coulda just walked out the front door.”

“fuck you,” Edge rasped out. He rolled down the window, drawing in deep breaths as Red pulled away from the curb, keeping carefully to the speed limit for once.

“that any way to talk to your chauffeur?”

“please tell me you didn’t steal my brother’s car,” Stretch groaned.

“it’s not stealing if you have the keys, would you two quit bitching? next time i’ll leave you in the shitter for the night.”

Edge ignored all that, glaring as his brother as he snapped out, “Report!”

“eh, it could be worse,” Red kept his eye lights on the road, turning in the direction of the hospital. “public relations is already dealing with the police. you both have diplomatic immunity, but the cops are gonna wanna talk eventually and we can’t put ‘em off forever.”

“They can come to the Embassy.”

“yep, that’s the deal. they had no right to detain you, there were plenty of witnesses saying those humans attacked you. plus, we got andy playing pinata, spilling out his candy on the sidewalk. none of the bullshit those jackholes were spewing was gonna stick, but who’s to say what would have happened if the cops got you two downtown. coulda gone bad, real quick.” He looked into the rearview mirror, meeting Edge’s eye lights. “you did okay, kid.”

Edge said nothing, only looked away.

“is jeff okay?” Stretch asked, desperately. “i did the best i could but—”

“you did okay, too,” Red said agreeably. “handy andy is in surgery, but it’s looking good. make no mistake, you saved his ass, honey bun. we’re getting him transferred to the monster side as soon as he’s out of recovery. as an embassy employee, we’ve got dibs and it’ll keep the cops off him. that was a fucking good idea on your part, bro.”

“good,” Stretch breathed out. “that…that’s good.”

Red nodded. “so the plan is looking like you and antwan meeting with the cops to give a statement. a statement, you ain’t answering shit, you got me, bro? stretch, i want you to stay with andy and wait for him to wake up. bet the kid could use a friendly face.” Something disturbingly close to sympathy was in Red’s voice as he said, “i know you two would rather stay in each other’s pockets right now but we’ve got shit to do, yeah?”

“Of course,” Edge said crisply. Stretch’s nod was slower, and Edge pulled him into his arms, uncaring at his brother’s rolled eye lights in the rearview mirror. They had a little time yet and he wanted to hold Stretch as long as he could.

His brother was right, it could have been worse, a lot worse. He didn’t want to think about that, not now, only wanted to breathe in the sweetness of Stretch’s magic for as long as he could.

Later would be soon enough to worry about anything else.

-finis-


End file.
